Wind Farm Repowering

Overview

This is a working document, not a market report. It assumes you are holding, or chasing, an ageing German wind farm and are trying to decide what to build in its place.

Most publications on German wind tell you how much capacity the country must add by 2030. That is a number you can get for free, and it will not help you. This guide tells you what to do with one specific old farm, in what order, and what happens when you do it in the wrong order — which, in repowering, is usually fatal to a permit or to an auction round rather than to the project outright, but is expensive either way.

The single organising idea: a greenfield developer starts with a blank field and a wind resource. You start with something better and worse — an existing farm that already has land, a grid connection, a permit history and twenty years of measured production, and a set of obligations, expectations and neighbours attached to all of it. Repowering is not a smaller version of greenfield development. It is the discipline of turning what you already have into leverage, and of knowing which parts of the old asset help you and which quietly expire the day the turbines stop turning.

What this guide covers

Twenty-two parts covering the full repowering sequence — the map of who does what, why repower and why now, reading the existing asset, permitting under §16b and §45c, the auction and the route to market, grid connection, turbines and suppliers, dismantling and the old fleet, land, community and the local payment, pitfalls, a worked example, offtake, the capital stack, taxation and incentives, construction and commissioning, life after commissioning, repowering plus storage, exit and change of control, acquiring a repowering project, economics and valuation, a sixteen-state regional playbook, and the investment committee and data room. In scope: onshore wind in Germany, from an existing farm reaching the end of its twenty-year support term or its technical life through to a repowered, energised, remunerated facility, across all sixteen federal states, from a single replacement turbine to multi-machine parks. Out of scope: offshore wind, greenfield development on land with no wind history, turbine engineering above the tower flange, and day-to-day asset operation. Closes with a tear-out field checklist and twelve appendices — timeline, glossary, on sources, decision index, an asset-screening scorecard, grid and permit control sheets, a model-input dictionary, an acquisition DD request list, a closing matrix and a Land-status sheet.

Who this is for

Owners, developers, investors, lenders and utilities holding or chasing an ageing German onshore wind farm and deciding what to build in its place — including those crossing over from greenfield development, a utility M&A desk, a fund or farmland.

What you get

• Practical repowering guidance, not market sizing
• Deal Evidence — real, public, dated repowering transactions from company releases and trade filings
• What This Costs You — the specific mistake, and the specific consequence in schedule or euros
• Best Practices — the distilled instruction set closing each part
• Ask Before You Sign — questions to put to the counterparty before you commit
• A worked example, from screening to commercial operation
• A sixteen-state regional playbook — sixteen Länder, sixteen sets of rules
• German statutory and technical terms given in the original, because you will meet them in the original
• A tear-out field checklist and twelve appendices, including control sheets, a model-input dictionary and a closing matrix
• 142 keyed sources, drawn from the federal statutes, the Bundesnetzagentur, the Umweltbundesamt, the Fachagentur Wind und Solar and Deutsche WindGuard

Table of contents

1. How to use this guide: A working document, not a market report.
2. Part 0 — The Map: Who does what, and where the money is actually made.
3. Part 1 — Why Repower, and Why Now: The age wall, the subsidy cliff, and the four ways out.
4. Part 2 — Reading the Existing Asset: What you own, and what actually transfers.
5. Part 3 — Permitting the Repower: §16b, §45c, the acceleration package and the area geometry.
6. Part 4 — The Auction and the Route to Market: The tender, the ceiling, the correction factor, the citizen-energy route.
7. Part 5 — Grid Connection: The point you inherit, the workflow, and the curtailment.
8. Part 6 — Turbines and Suppliers: Machines, the height you are allowed, and the supply contract.
9. Part 7 — Dismantling and the Old Fleet: The obligation, the security, the blades and the second-hand market.
10. Part 8 — Land, Community and the Local Payment: Leases, the two money channels, and the 16-state matrix.
11. Part 9 — Pitfalls: The ways a repower goes wrong that a greenfield does not.
12. Part 10 — The Worked Example: One old farm, from screening to commercial operation.
13. Part 11 — The Offtake: Direct marketing, the PPA market, and how a subsidy-light repower sells its power.
14. Part 12 — The Capital Stack: How a repower is financed, KfW, and the taxonomy frame.
15. Part 13 — Taxation and Incentives: Depreciation, the trade-tax split, and the transfer-tax trap.
16. Part 14 — Construction and Commissioning: Building around the old farm, and the certificate chain that gets you paid.
17. Part 15 — After Commissioning: O&M, insurance, and the case for running on.
18. Part 16 — Repowering plus Storage: Co-locating a battery on a grid point you already own.
19. Part 17 — Exit and Change of Control: Selling the repower, and the rules that gate the sale.
20. Part 18 — Acquiring a Repowering Project: Diligence, structure, and the inherited liability.
21. Part 19 — Economics and Valuation: What the finished asset is worth, and which numbers to trust.
22. Part 20 — The Regional Playbook: Sixteen states, sixteen sets of rules.
23. Part 21 — The Investment Committee: Turning the whole guide into a decision, and a data room.
24. The Field Checklist: Tear-out — everything that matters.
25. Appendices A–L — Reference and control sheets: Timeline · Glossary · On sources · Decision index · Asset-screening scorecard · Grid control sheet · Permit control sheet · Model-input dictionary · Acquisition DD request list · Closing matrix · Land-status sheet · Sources and references

Research and sources

Material factual figures carry a source and an "as of" date, keyed to 142 numbered references drawn from the consolidated federal statutes, the Bundesnetzagentur, the Umweltbundesamt, the Fachagentur Wind und Solar and Deutsche WindGuard. Where credible sources disagree — as they do on the size of the ageing fleet and the volume rolling off support, because they count different universes — both figures are given and the difference is explained rather than averaged. Where a widely circulated figure could not be traced to a published authority, notably land-lease rates and turbine delivery lead times, it is labelled as convention or omitted. The auction ceiling, the realisation and payment deadlines, the negative-price rule and the state participation regimes were under active reform as this edition closed on 17 August 2026; re-verify anything you intend to rely on for a specific decision.

Licensing

Single-user licence. For use by the named licensee only. Redistribution, resale, posting to shared drives or internal circulation beyond the named licensee is a breach of licence. Team licences covering up to five named users are available.